VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
White sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach, Pensacola
PensacolaWhite sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Pensacola by Jason Meredith, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Pensacola?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose La Spezia for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on La Spezia’s own page.

Choose Pensacola for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Pensacola’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. La Spezia 60, Pensacola 84: Pensacola leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Pensacola 45: La Spezia leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Pensacola 45: Pensacola leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Pensacola 42: Pensacola leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Pensacola 62: La Spezia leads by 17 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Pensacola 45: La Spezia leads by 42 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Pensacola 62: Pensacola leads by 14 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Pensacola 18: La Spezia leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Pensacola 28: La Spezia leads by 7 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Pensacola 44: La Spezia leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Pensacola 36: Pensacola leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Pensacola 30: La Spezia leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Pensacola.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

La Spezia
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Pensacola
45match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

La Spezia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
20 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Pensacola in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaPensacola

Where the figures come from

La Spezia's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

La Spezia has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre). Pensacola: 1991-2020 normals, Pensacola / Pleasant Grove (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaPensacola
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m31 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)6 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaPensacola
City population92,11954,312
People per km²1,792515
Museums within 10 km125
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Pensacola somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.